For cyclists, winter is a time to restore and recharge. But as much as your body needs some TLC, so does your bike. That doesn’t have to mean an exhaustive overhaul. These five quick maintenance jobs are easy enough for any home mechanic, require few tools, and will ensure that you enter the new year with a road-ready machine.
Wash/Inspect Your Frame
Few parts of our bikes get less love than the frame. But at least once a year, you should give your bike a careful visual inspection to look for problems such as chipped paint, loose bottle-cage rivets, or even cracks.
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First, thoroughly wash your bike and wipe it dry with a clean cloth—this is the starting point for all of these quick jobs. Leave the wheels off the bike for now. (You did take them off for the wash, right?) With good lighting (and a flashlight for better spot inspection), examine your entire frame. Start at the fork tips and work your way through the main triangle to the rear dropouts. Look for chipped paint, dings, or dents and, on carbon frames, deformations or hairline cracks. Particular trouble spots for carbon are where frame pieces are joined. On some bikes, those joints are visible in the top layer of carbon, but areas you should examine closely are the underside of the down tube just behind the head-tube junction, the bottom bracket area, and the rear dropouts.
Some bike makers offer touch-up paint, but model/hobby paint is a good option for patching chips too. The chip may just be in the clearcoat, where even fingernail polish works for a short-term fix. For any serious-looking issues such as cracks or dents, check with the bike’s local affiliated dealer.
Refresh/Replace Brake Pads
You know how your bike looks after riding on wet roads? Your brake pads pick up all that gunk even in dry conditions, which compromises braking power and over time can damage those expensive rims. Refreshing your brake pads takes only a minute or so, and with modern-style cartridge-and-pad brake-shoe systems, replacing them takes only slightly longer.
With the wheels out, inspect both sets of pads. Most have wear-indicator lines. If yours still have some life, take a flat metal file and rough up the braking surface to remove the grit. A fine, dental-style pick (available at hardware stores for only a few dollars) can help pry out larger pieces of rock or metal embedded in the pad.
If your pads are close to the end of their useable life, replace them. Use a 2.5mm hex wrench to loosen the fixing bolt on the shoe (don’t remove it entirely, though), then slide the pad out backward. Slide a new one in (check the direction arrows on the new pads) and retighten the bolt. You may need to spin the brake’s barrel adjuster a few turns to back the new pads away from the rim.
Clean/Replace Your Chain
Modern 10- and 11-speed drivetrains are fantastic, but we’ve noticed they often see faster chain wear. The best defense is a clean chain, but replacing chains before they get too worn is the most effective way to extend the life of other, more expensive drivetrain parts like chainrings.
First, use a chain checker to see if your chain still has life. We like Park Tool’s CC-2 chain checker for its simple, accurate approach, but even a 12-inch ruler will do (on a new chain, 12 inches goes exactly from one pin center to another one; more than 1/8 inch of stretch means you need a new chain).
To replace a chain, use a chainbreaker tool to remove a link pin. Slide the chain off the drivetrain. Take the old chain and lay it flat with the new one; use the old chain’s length to mark where to cut the new one. Use the chainbreaker to remove the pin at that spot on the new chain. Thread the new chain through the drivetrain, but leave it off the chainrings. Join the two parts of the chain together with a quick link or a chain pin, depending on the manufacturer.
If your chain is still good, wash and lube it. Our preferred tool is a dedicated chainwasher like Park Tool’s Cyclone or Pedro’s Chainpig, which have brushes that get into hard-to-reach spaces like between links. Use a bicycle-specific degreaser (other products may harm paint or tires), and thread the chain through the chainwasher, then backpedal to thoroughly scrub and soak the chain. When the chain runs clean, remove the chainwasher and thoroughly dry the chain with a rag. We mean thoroughly. Only lube the chain once it’s actually dry (you can even leave it overnight as long as you lube it before your next ride). To lube a chain, slowly backpedal and put a drop of lube onto each link connector, not on the side plates. Let the chain sit so the lube penetrates into the links, then dry with a clean rag and wipe off all the excess lube (don't forget the derailleur pulleys). Otherwise, lube splatters off the frame and drivetrain parts.
Two tips: Use a chain keeper in place of your rear wheel, which prevents the chain from dragging on the frame and keeps your cassette clean, and put the chain on the big ring in front—it’s easier to wipe down afterward than the small ring.
Inspect/Replace Your Tires
Now that you washed your wheels and tires along with the bike, you’ll be better able to spot wear and tear that could mean a roadside flat or, worse, a call to the sag wagon for a blown tire.
Get that flashlight out again and look at the tread on both tires. Your rear will almost certainly be more worn than the front; that’s normal. Look for cuts in the tread, bare spots from skids, or a flattened profile to the rear tire, which means the tread is worn down close to the casing. Check the sidewalls for cuts or loose, fraying casing cords, which means the sidewall may be about to fail.
To replace a tire, deflate the tube entirely. Then pinch the sides of the tire toward the center of the rim, which makes it easier to remove. Pull the tire off and inspect the tube for problems like wear around the valve stem. Inflate the tube just enough to hold its shape, insert into the tire. Push the valve stem through the valve hole in the rim and then mount one side of the tire bead, then the other. Push the bead to the center of the rim to make it easier, and make sure to check that you didn’t pinch the tube between the tire and rim, or you’ll get a loud blowout when you pump it up.
Two tips: A bit of talcum powder on the tube helps prevent pinching between the tire and rim and lets the tube slip against the tire, which reduces the chance of a valve-stem failure on the road (some tubes come pre-talc’d). Line up the middle of the tire’s “hot patch” (found at the logo) with the valve stem when installing. It makes it easier to find the source of a flat and patch the tube.
Clean/Replace Your Bar Tape
New bar tape looks great, but over a season it gets scuffed and dirty even from normal wear and tear. Padded styles can lose their cushion over time. A clean rag and warm soapy water gets off most dirt. For white tapes with a leather-style look, one effective trick is to use a damp stain-eraser pad, a common household product. It won’t work on tapes with a rough texture, though.
If you need new tape, unwind the old stuff starting near the stem. Peel the bottom of your brake hoods back to get underneath them and finish by popping out the handlebar plugs. Now’s a great time to check your cables for splits or cracks, or even just to see if they moved around on the handlebar. Use electrical tape to put them back in place if so.
Start wrapping new bar tape at the plug end. A good wrap job uses some tension to keep the tape from slipping, but take care with cork-style wraps as too much pressure can tear them. Since tape jobs are easier to show than describe, here’s our quick video on rewrapping yours.
Joe Lindsey is a longtime freelance journalist who writes about sports and outdoors, health and fitness, and science and tech, especially where the three elements in that Venn diagram overlap.
